The flagship choir of the University of St Andrews is joined by dynamic young period instrument group Ars Eloquentiae and the members of the Fitzwilliam String Quartet in an exploration of J.S. Bach’s relationship with the compositional style associated with renaissance polyphony.

The disc also investigates the influences which Bach seems to have absorbed when planning and composing his great Mass in B minor. Two Credo pieces by Bassani (world premiere recording) and Caldara are included, each arranged in different ways by Bach, possibly in preparation for the opening movement of his own Credo. Palestrina’s ‘Missa Sine Nomine’ was likewise known to Bach who copied, and probably performed, it in the 1740s.

The CD culminates in the great ‘Symbolum Nicenum’ from the Mass in B minor, and also includes organ works by Bach in the stile antico, performed by Tom Wilkinson on the Ahrend organ at the University of Edinburgh.